The period started on Monday, June 8, with southerly flow from Tropical Depression Cristobal bringing additional moisture into the warm and humid air in place in the region. Morning temperatures rose from the mid-70s into the mid- to upper-80s, and scattered showers and thunderstorms popped up across the state. The tropical air mass remained in place over the Southeast through the middle of the week, as a weak stationary front stalled across the Midlands. While the morning lows held in the 70s, daytime temperatures steadily climbed into the mid-90s. Isolated severe thunderstorms in Beaufort and Jasper counties caused minor wind damage on Tuesday, and a nearby WeatherFlow station in Forest Beach recorded a wind gust of 45 mph. The National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg confirmed a weak tornado touched down near Gray Court in Laurens County on Wednesday evening, with maximum winds estimated at 80 mph. The damage was mainly snapped and uprooted trees, but it also caused minor damage to a barn and a couple of houses.
A slow-moving cold front approached the state on Thursday, causing heavy rainfall with localized flash flooding in the coastal Lowcountry and Pee Dee regions. CoCoRaHS observers near Awendaw and Goose Creek reported 24-hour rainfall totals ending Friday morning of over three inches. The cold front pushed through the state on Friday, allowing the northerly flow to usher in cooler and drier air for the weekend. Morning lows on Saturday and Sunday dropped into the upper 50s to low 60s, and temperatures climbed into the upper 70s and low 80s under mostly sunny skies.
(Note: The highest and lowest official temperatures and highest precipitation totals provided below are based on observations from the National Weather Service (NWS) Cooperative Observer network and the National Weather Service's Forecast Offices.)| Weekly* | Since Jan 1 | Departure | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anderson Airport | 0.47 | 37.37 | 17.7 |
| Greer Airport | 0.27 | 42.18 | 21.0 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 0.51 | 28.76 | 10.0 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 1.64 | 29.58 | 11.0 |
| Orangeburg Airport | 1.44 | 20.73 | 0.8 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.21 | 29.17 | 9.5 |
| Florence Airport | 0.69 | 28.65 | 11.1 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 1.62 | 23.16 | 3.6 |
| Charleston Air Force Base | 2.59 | 24.89 | 6.2 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 1.96 | 25.02 | 6.1 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 75 degrees. Columbia: 77 degrees. Barnwell: 71 degrees. Mullins: 61 degrees.
The rain was sporadic across the state during the period, with heavy rain falling in isolated locations. Rainfall totals ranged from 0.10" at a few places in the CSRA and Midlands to over 6.00" in coastal Charleston County. The year-to-date departures from normal show wet conditions across much of the region, with areas of the state recording more than eight inches above normal, and close to twenty inches above normal in portions of the Upstate. The only exceptions are the areas around Beaufort, Jasper, and Orangeburg counties that have missed out on some of the recent significant rainfalls.
The USGS streamflow data from their gauges above the Fall Line showed a decrease for the first time in weeks, with the values dropping into a more normal range. However, the gauges in the lower Savannah and Pee Dee regions were much above normal to high values at 14- and 28-day average streamflow compared to historical data.
